INIVERSITY LIBRARY EXTENSION SERVICE 
ROUND TABLE* 


*Reprinted from the pile of the American 
Library Association, vol. 16, no. 4, Papers and Pro- 
ergieres De Detroit Conference, 1922, 

fA 


ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT 
OF MATERIAL FOR BULLETINS TO 
BE USED IN LIBRARY EXTEN- 
SION SERVICE 


By Louis R, Wison,* Librarian, University 
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 


During the past ten years the Division of 
Extension of the University of North Caro- 
lina has issued from 90 to 100 bulletins, many 
of which have been prepared to promote 
some form of library extension service. In 
the preparation of this material a fairly defi- 
nite line of procedure, based upon an accu- 
mulating experience, has been followed. In 
response to a request from your program 
committee and with the hope that our expe- 
rience may be of service to others engaged 
in similar work, it is my purpose to present 
in bare outline this method of procedure. 

1. The first step in the preparation of bul- 
letins of this nature, bulletins concerning de- 
bate, citizenship, community drama, play- 
grounds, consolidated schools, the beautifica- 
tion of school grounds, which come under 
the subject of this paper, is, quite naturally, 
that of determining the particular subject of 
which the bulletin shall treat. This selec- 
tion must be thoughtfully made, and if it is 
within my province to suggest who should 
make it, I should say that it should be by 
the director of extension and the chief of the 
library extension service. It should unques- 
tionably be decided by those members of the 
extension administration who are constantly 
serving the needs of the public and are re- 
sponsible for the carrying out of a sustained 
program of extension work. No matter from 
what source the suggestion as to subject 
comes, whether from an individual, or a club, 
or a special organization, or from the serv- 
ice offered by some other extension division, 
the subject must be considered in relation to 
the special program of which it is to be a 
part. 

2. Once the subject is chosen, an author 
or compiler must be selected who is quali- 
fied to handle it, and (which is of even 
greater importance) handle it from the point 
of view of the director of extension rather 
than that of, say, the head of an English or 


*Read by Mr. Baker, assistant to Mr. Wilson. 


10 


some other academic department. It has long 
since been conclusively demonstrated that 
many members of a faculty whose services 
in the classroom are of a high order are 
altogether unsuccessful as correspondence 
teachers. It is equally demonstrable that not 
all good teachers are good authors of exten- 
sion bulletins, but that there is really an art 
in fitting a publication of this nature to the 
special group for whom it is intended. At 
the beginning of our work, members of the 
faculty who were employed to prepare bul- 
letins, particularly programs for women’s 
clubs, almost invariably worked out a sylla- 
bus, which, if adopted by a club, was usually 
soon abandoned, or had to be worked over 
and put into usable form. More recently 
this difficulty has been overcome in that speci- 
mens of successful programs have been avail- 
able, and a fairly good honorarium is prom- 
ised for the delivery of a manuscript which 
meets certain requirements. To my mind, it 
is absolutely necessary, not that the offering 
shall be low-brow, but that it shall be alto- 
gether worth while and that it shall be 
put in sufficiently clear and attractive 
form to elicit and hold the interest of people 
who make use of the service for what they 
get out of it an’ not because a dean of stu- 
dents, with all the disciplinary authority of 
an institution, is lined up behind them. 

3. The third essential is to furnish the 
author such library material as is essential 
to the preparation of the bulletin. In our 
case, the bibliographical tools of the library 
are, as a matter of course, always at the dis- 
posal of the author. In addition to this, the 
library sets aside a special fund of several 
hundred dollars, for the use of the library 
extension service division in the preparation 
of bulletins. If new books are required, or 
if duplicate copies are needed, they are se- 
cured immediately and the author makes such 
use of them as is desired. This is extremely 
important, and adequate provision must be 
made for it. However, in the preparation of 
bulletins for study clubs or other organiza- 
tions following a fairly definite course of 
study, it is extremely important for the au- 
thor to base the course on some single text 
or at most two or three volumes which can 
be easily secured. Long bibliographies should 
be studiously shunned, particularly if the 


service is intended for communities that have 
very inadequate public library service. 

4. When the manuscript, prepared in con- 
formity with these suggestions, has been ac- 
cepted and while the publication is going 
through the press, all books and materials 
referred to in the publication should be 
brought together and arranged in such a way 
as to be available when the bulletin is dis- 
tributed. A bulletin supported in this way 
by an adequate package library service is far 
more effective than one which is not. Fur- 
thermore, not only are more books and peri- 
odicals called into use to support the subject 
matter of the particular bulletin in question, 
but the whole work of the library extension 
service division is emphasized in the mind 
of the public. 

While these four steps are the essential 
ones in the preparation of the type of bulle- 
tin we are discussing, possibly two other ob- 
servations might be made with profit here. 
An effort should be made, particularly on the 
part of state institutions engaged in library 
extension service, not to duplicate publica- 
tions. In North Carolina it has been easy to 
avoid duplication, as the University, until re- 
cently, has had a free hand in extension 
work of all kinds. In the ase of our pub- 
lication treating of the beautification and im- 
provement of school grounds, however, we 
found it desirable to co-operate with the 
State Department of Education; and in the 
case of our bulletin on parent-teachers as- 
sociations we have kept in mind the service 
of the North Carolina College for Women. 
So far there has been but little duplication 
of effort on the part-of the library extension 
service of the Division of Extension of the 
University of North Carolina Library’ Com- 
mission, as the former has devoted itself al- 
most entirely to supplying material essential 
to the carrying out of special programs, 
whereas, the latter has limited itself largely 
to the task of supplying material to schools 
for use in debate and the discussion of cur- 
rent events. Special effort, certainly, should 


be made to avoid excessive duplication, not 


11 


so much because it is expensive, but because 
it may furnish the opportunity to the man 
who wishes to make trouble. In reality, ex- 
cessive duplication of library extension serv- 
ice in North Carolina, which has in its pub- 
lic libraries only 56 volumes to every 1000 
inhabitants, is an impossibility, as it very 
probably is in the rural sections of almost 
all the states. 

The second observation is that after the 
material is organized and published, the work 
will have been done to but little purpose un- 
less a satisfactory plan of “selling” it to the 
public is devised and employed. In this re- 
spect our service has been unusually suc- 
cessful, as attested by the rapidity with which 
many of the bulletins have become out of 
print, and by the steadily mounting number 
of programs and pieces of material sent out. 

In conclusion I wish to submit for exam- 
ination, which will prove of more value prob- 
ably than these suggestions, copies of a half 
dozen of our most typical bulletins, as fol- 
lows: Public discussion and debate, Con- 
structive ventures in government, The pa- 
rent-teacher association, Studies in southern 
literature, The beautification and improve- 
ment of school grounds, and Plays for ama- ’ 
teurs. All represent phases of our library 
extension service, and all have been widely 
used by individuals and clubs in North Caro- 
lina and many other states. 


A general discussion followed the reading 
of these papers. After the discussion it was 
moved that the University Library Extension 
Service workers take the steps necessary for 
affiliation as a group with the American Li- 
brary Association. 

The following officers were elected for 
next year’s meeting: 

Chairman, Edith Thomas, of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan Library Extension Service. 

Secretary, LeNoir Dimmitt, loan librarian, 
Extension Division, University of Texas. 
EpitH THOMAS, 

Chairman. 


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